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Fear is a Scarecrow

There’s a golf course where players sometimes look up mid-round and freeze at the sight of a coyote standing perfectly still at the edge of the lake. Then they notice it hasn’t moved or blinked the entire time. The coyote is a plastic decoy that the groundskeepers set out to scare geese off the greens, and the geese take the bait. So do plenty of golfers, at least for a few seconds.

Did you know that’s most of what we’re afraid of?

Gideon and his people lived under that kind of fear for seven years. The Midianites swept in every harvest, ravaged the crops, and disappeared, and God’s own people retreated into caves and mountain hideouts, paralyzed by an enemy God had already proven He could defeat. They’d watched Him part the Red Sea and rain bread from the sky. Yet somehow the threat in front of them got louder than the God behind them.

Fear is a scarecrow! It can’t actually do anything to you—it just stands in the field and screams you’ll lose everything, you’ll never change, or the worst will happen. Don’t let a piece of straw run your life.

Friend, our God is greater than every fear!

Pray

Lord, give me eyes to tell what’s an actual threat from what’s just noise. Make your voice louder than my fears. Amen.